Syria war stokes unrest in Lebanon's Tripoli

Six people were killed in Lebanon's Tripoli on Saturday, as the country gets dragged into the civil war raging in neighbouring Syria.

Sectarian tension in Tripoli, which has festered for decades, is picking up again with politicians of diverse sects siding with rival parties in the Syrian dispute.

Saturday's killings followed repeated attacks on Alawites in Tripoli. Several people were shot and wounded in separate incidents this week, and Alawite men were beaten in an attack on a bus earlier in November.

The divisions in Tripoli, only 30km from the Syrian border, reflect the sectarian gulf across Lebanon over Syria's civil war.